A Phillips Academy Outreach Program
NEWS
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers
MARCH 2018
#IamIRT
FROM THE INTERIM DIRECTOR Phillips Academy’s Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) empowers talented underserved and underrepresented future educators to teach and serve as leaders in American education because diversity is essential to excellence.
Making Connections, Building Partnerships I hope you had a healthy, enjoyable, and productive winter! Although snow is still a possibility here at Phillips Academy, the IRT team is deeply engaged in the process of recruiting our fall 2018 cohort. Thanks to a simpler, more user-friendly online application platform—facilitated by Recruitment and Admission Program Specialist Monica Reum—we’re pleased to see a notable increase in applications. The IRT network is stronger than ever. Our Alumni Recruitment Program has grown by leaps and bounds since its launch in 2015, and we are grateful to the IRT Alumni Mentors who provided invaluable guidance to students from our fall 2017 cohort. As our current IRT fellows begin to receive acceptance offers from consortium institutions, they are connecting with IRT alumni at universities across the country. The strength and depth of that IRT connection is both powerful and inspiring. As we continue the search for our next executive director, we know that finding a talented leader who can build on our existing network of passionate, committed, and engaged alumni is essential. In the year ahead, we encourage you to publicize your association with the IRT across your various social media platforms. The IRT’s national reputation as a thought leader in higher education diversity continues to grow, and your display of pride affirms this. Please use #IamIRT to share personal and professional successes. And of course, please consider donating your time, treasure, and talent to the IRT. Best wishes,
Kate Slater
ACCOLADES & MILESTONES ALUMNUS PROFILE Recruitment in High Gear During the past few months, our recruitment team, led by Recruitment and Admission Program Specialist Monica Reum, hosted information sessions nationwide and virtually, gathering the names of more than 1,000 prospective students. We are grateful to the more than 30 IRT Alumni Recruiters who served as an extension of our recruitment team, enhancing our efforts and connecting with students with whom we otherwise would not have been able to meet. In total, IRT information sessions took place at nearly 50 colleges and universities across the country. The IRT application deadline was March 1. In the next few months, the admissions team will diligently review these applications and shape the incoming class of 2018. To become an IRT Alumni Recruiter or learn about other ways to give back with your time and talent, please email Monica at mreum@andover.edu.
Jones Joins IRT Team We are delighted to welcome Renata Love Jones, IRT ’13, to the IRT team as our research program specialist. Jones will work with our admissions team to assess candidates for the 2018 cohort. During the next five months, Jones also will conduct research and relevant data analysis for a variety of ongoing IRT strategic plan priorities. Jones is currently pursuing a PhD degree in education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, with a focus on language, literacy, and culture. She holds an MAT degree in TESOL from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
“ I appreciate the work the IRT does for students of color like myself and thank you for the impact you make on our educational endeavors.”
Rolando Herts, PhD, IRT ’94, ’00 Finding Place and Authentic Life Purpose Through the IRT When people ask me where I am from, I tell them I am not from anywhere in particular; that I am a placeless spirit traveling a serpentine path. Thankfully, the IRT has guided my traveling spirit to places where it has been able to serve authentically and purposefully. I wrote about place-seeking in “Sacred Ground, Traveling Light: Personal Reflections of UniversityCommunity Tourism Engagement,” which won the Best Treatise prize in the IRT’s Impressions, Ruminations, Treatises: Essays on Intersectionality, Praxis, and the Educational Arena. The essay details how the serendipitous discovery of a historic black cemetery inspired meditations on my Rutgers doctoral research journey: “There are places where travelers go to renew their spirits, travelers like me who have stories and lessons of transformation to share…. We are fighting to tell the stories of spirits that came before us, stories that live on in places hidden and places found. At Lamington Black Cemetery, I found a reflection of my traveling spirit and the work that it must continue to do to give voice to communities that historically have not been heard.” (pp. 65-66) I did not realize, however, that “Sacred Ground” would transport me to the Mississippi Delta, a culturally rich yet economically impoverished region where heritagebased community empowerment is essential. I owe much of who and where I am today to the IRT. Indeed, the IRT amplified my authentic life purpose through its Impressions, Ruminations, Treatises. When “Sacred Ground” received the prize, I shared the news with mentors from Morehouse, The University of Chicago, and Rutgers. In addition to extending his congratulations, external dissertation committee member Dr. Luther Brown confided that he was retiring from The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University (DSU). A historically white institution located in the Mississippi Delta, DSU is now among the state’s most diverse. The Delta Center is an interdisciplinary center of excellence that promotes greater understanding of
the Mississippi Delta’s internationally significant cultural heritage contributions, including music, foodways, literature, and civil rights icons such as Emmett Till and Fannie Lou Hamer. The Delta Center fulfills this mission through university-community tourism engagement, including the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area with the National Park Service and the National Endowment for the Humanities “Most Southern Place on Earth” Institute. Then came the ultimate surprise: Dr. Brown encouraged me to apply for his job based on my dissertation research and “Sacred Ground.” Months later, I departed Rutgers to become the director of The Delta Center and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. In leading The Delta Center, I am fulfilling the authentic life purpose articulated in “Sacred Ground.” For example, we created the Delta Jewels Oral History Partnership with Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Alysia Burton Steele. This cultural heritage interpretation project has engaged more than 1,000 residents and visitors in honoring unsung African American church mothers from the Mississippi Delta who lived through the Jim Crow Era and the Civil Rights Movement. Delta State and the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area received National Park Service Centennial Awards for collaboratively implementing this project with regional, statewide, and national partners—including the Smithsonian. During a recent Delta Regional Authority leadership program at Harvard, my traveling spirit was compelled to visit the IRT. Though Kelly Wise is retired and Asabe Poloma is at Brown [former executive directors], their passion for and commitment to the IRT’s mission remain intact. This was clear in my interactions with interim director Kate Slater, who graciously welcomed me back to the source that has connected so many of us to the communities where we are fulfilling our authentic life purposes. Congratulations, IRT, for continuing to renew traveling spirits that empower voices in places where we serve.
—Eunice Gonzalez-Sierra, IRT ’17
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Dr. Herts, director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, can be reached at rolando.herts@gmail.com. To learn more, visit www.deltacenterdsu.com and www.msdeltaheritage.com.
VO LU M E 6 I N U M B E R 3 I FALL 2017
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ACCOLADES & MILESTONES Fall 2017 Alumni Mentors
An article by Aria Halliday, IRT ’11, was recently published in the Black Girlhood issue of the journal Departures in Critical Qualitative Research. Her article is titled “Envisioning Black Girl Futures: Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda Feminism and New Understandings of Black Girl Sexuality in Popular Culture.” Halliday is an assistant professor of women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire. Visit http://dcqr.ucpress.edu/content/6/3/65.
We are grateful to the following IRT alumni for their contributions this past fall: Dalton Anthony, IRT ’96 Marsha Barrett, IRT ’04 Morgan Darby, IRT ’04 Stephanie Flores-Koulish, IRT ’97 Tiffany Joseph, IRT ’03
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Monica Muñoz Martinez, IRT ’05—former IRT Summer Workshop faculty member—was awarded the Autry Public History award at the Western Historical Association conference in San Diego. Her first book, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas, will be published by Harvard University Press later this year.
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IRT alumni met up at the 2017 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) annual conference held in Baltimore. From left are Andrea Y. Adomako, IRT ’14, a postdoctoral student in the African American Studies Department at Northwestern University; Erik Hollis, IRT ’14, a postdoctoral student in the American Studies Department at The George Washington University; Aria Halliday, IRT ’11, assistant professor of women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire; and Mary McNeil, IRT ’14, a postdoctoral student in the American Studies Department at Harvard University.
Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 (left), IRT education programs specialist, is greeted by Jacky Neri Aria, IRT ’13, assistant director of Kenyon College’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Camille Borders, IRT ’17, was one of 32 students selected as Rhodes Scholars. The Rhodes Scholarship is a prestigious academic honor that provides an opportunity to earn an advanced degree at Oxford University in England. Borders is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis.
How Can You Help? Spreading the word about the IRT and your own personal IRT experiences is more important than ever. Please consider sharing your time, treasure, and talent in any or all of the ways listed below. We look forward to working with you again! • Become an Alumni Mentor—We hope to bring more alumni on board this fall to assist incoming IRT students on Statement of Purpose advising. Your professional expertise and guidance are crucial to the success of our next cohort. • Join the Alumni Recruitment Program— Become a “remote partner” and help the IRT reach potential students on your campus.
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David Johns, IRT ’03, is executive director of the National Black Coalition. An article about his work titled “Between Policy and Practice: A Well-Rounded Social Justice Advocate” appeared in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Visit http://diverseeducation.com/article/105341/.
Hannah Kim, IRT ’13 Alisa Sanchez, IRT ’06 LaKisha Simmons, IRT ’02 Delice Williams, IRT ’96 Anthony Urena, IRT ’11
• Be a Guest Speaker—Contribute your powerful voice at an IRT event.
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• Make a Gift Online—Your generosity impacts current and future IRT scholars. When you and other IRT alumni give back, it also sends a very positive message to foundation, corporate, and individual donors, which can lead to a significant increase in program support. Please make your donation at irt.andover.edu/donate.
Please email news items and high-resolution photos to jbonasera@andover.edu.
To learn more about these opportunities, please contact Kate Slater, IRT interim director, at 978-749-4116 or kslater@andover.edu.
This past fall, IRT alumni convened at the Next Wave Leadership Conversation sponsored by NYU’s Steinhardt School. From left are Noel Anderson, IRT ’91; Elizabeth Gil, IRT ’95, ’11; and Lisette Nieves, IRT ’90.
IRT Executive Director Search Update The IRT has teamed up with Koya Leadership Partners for the recruitment and selection of a new executive director. A nationally acclaimed executive search firm, Koya specializes in serving mission-driven clients and has particular expertise in placing women and people of color in nonprofit leadership positions. Based on insights and ongoing support from all IRT stakeholders, the search is well under way. A position profile has been circulated to hundreds of sources, and Koya’s national search team has already identified a preliminary set of candidates. Koya will continue to work closely with the IRT/Phillips Academy search committee to identify candidates who are aligned with the core values and mission of the IRT, and who bring the expertise and skills necessary to support the organization in fulfilling—and building upon—its 2020 strategic plan. The position’s anticipated start date is July 1, 2018. If you are interested in this position, would like additional information, or know of a great potential candidate, we encourage you to email Koya’s Alison Ranney or Anne McCarthy at koyachicago@koyapartners.com. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.
Stay Connected with the IRT! Announce good news. Share memories. Post opportunities. Please join these official IRT alumni social media groups. Twitter: @IRTAndover LinkedIn: IRT Andover Facebook: IRT Andover
Photo by Gil Talbot
During Recruiters’ Weekend each summer, IRT students meet with representatives from the IRT’s national consortium of colleges and universities to explore graduate school programs and learn more about the application process.
IRT ADVISORY BOARD 2017–2018 Julia Lloyd Johannsen, PA ’96 Chair Brookline, MA Asna Afzal, PA ’99 New York, NY Bret D. Asbury, PA ’96 Philadelphia, PA
Please Support This Extraordinary Program Your generosity will help increase the diversity of teachers, school counselors and administrators, and professors—all vital role models— to better reflect the diversity of today’s students. Make your gift today at irt.andover.edu/donate. For further information, contact Beth Parsons at 978-749-4523 or bparsons@andover.edu.
Andrew H. Chin, PA ’00 Weston, MA Jonathan Cortez, IRT ’14 Robstown, TX Sari Edelstein, PA ’98 Cambridge, MA Tyrone Forman, PA ’88 Chicago, IL Kimberly Formisano, PA ’86 Dedham, MA Stephen H. Frank, PA ’81 Darien, CT Andrew J. Guff, PA ’79 Greenwich, CT Daniel James, PA ’18 Florence, SC Marc Johnson, IRT ’97 Milton, MA Victoria Kataoka, PA ’93 New York, NY Brooks J. Klimley, PA ’75 New York, NY
Excellence in teaching starts here. Excellence in teaching startsof here. Institute for Recruitment Teachers
Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover, Mass. 01810-4161 978-749-4116 irt@andover.edu irt.andover.edu
Clarisa Merkatz, PA ’19 Farmington, CT Jane Biondi Munna, PA ’96 New York, NY
Alarik Myrin III, PA ’88 Brooklyn, NY Gabriela Poma, PA ’88 Cambridge, MA Chera Reid, IRT ’00 Troy, MI Richard Shin, PA ’90 Toronto, ON Canada John Swansburg, PA ’96 Brooklyn, NY Alejandro Velasco, IRT ’99 New York, NY Bruce S. Wilson, PA ’77 Washington, DC Adam K. Wise, PA ’83 Chestnut Hill, MA Marcy Kerr Yuknat, PA ’90 Dover, MA Gonzalo S. Zeballos, IRT ’92 New York, NY
Linda Carter Griffith (ex officio) Assistant Head of School for Equity, Inclusion, and Wellness Phillips Academy Beth Parsons (ex officio) Associate Director for Museums & Educational Outreach Phillips Academy
“ When I was in high school, a teacher showed me that the limits of my own academic capabilities were far beyond the boundaries of my previous conception. I support the IRT so that talented young educators may have a similar impact on their future students.” —Steve Frank, PA ’81 IRT Advisory Board